Supernatural: The Spear (14x09)

I mean, I'm not surprised, but it still hurts!

Cons:

It bothers me that nobody put together that Dean was vulnerable to Michael. It makes sense that Dean would push through and not share his weird shaky-vision stuff with his family, but Sam puts together that Michael's grace made Garth vulnerable to possession, so why wouldn't he then make the logical leap to Dean's vulnerability? I think this could have been fixed if Sam didn't figure out the Garth thing until maybe right before they enact their plan on Michael. It would be a domino effect, where Sam would put the pieces together but not fast enough to stop the inevitable. Instead, this feels like a huge oversight for Sam not to figure it out.

Also... did we really go to a mid-season hiatus on a Thanos snap? That had to be an intentional reference, right? Kind of annoying.

I liked seeing Dark!Kaia again, but every time she comes up as a plot point it just reminds me that Wayward Sisters didn't get picked up. I bet whatever they had planned for her would have been way cooler than what we're getting here.

Pros:

So much good stuff here. I love that we have our four boys teaming up to take on Michael, and that we're seeing so many good character moments and fun interactions along the way. Let's start with the bad guy stuff, though:

Michael in a female vessel was properly intimidating, and I love the way that played out. Garth as a secret agent was a pretty cool idea, although part of me wonders how that conversation came about, and I wish we could have seen Sam reach out to Garth to ask him for this huge favor. But setting that aside, I really liked all the scenes with Garth and Michael. Garth is a funny, light-hearted guy, but his terror about his situation really shone through. Supernatural has an annoying habit of bringing back old favorites just to kill them off, but luckily this time Garth made it through to live another day. But we now know that Michael can pop in and out of any vessel that contains his grace, so Garth might have some rough times ahead. I hope we get to see that play out.

Ketch gets a brief cameo as he informs our heroes that he has sent a valuable tool to defeat Michael through the mail. I love how his smugness transformed into chagrin when he realized that he'd deprived them of a much-needed weapon. Ketch likes to be seen as ultra-competent, but here he has failed in a frankly hilarious way, leading to Jack and Sam having to break into a post office on Christmas Eve to retrieve their magic weapon.

I love Jack so very much, and I love that even in an episode that isn't focused solely on him, we still see so many hints of how he has grown, and how he feels about his three dads. The scene with Michael, where the archangel is trying to relate with Jack and talk about their future, is so fascinating to me, because we're seeing Jack play out some character beats that we've already seen with Cas. Both are incredibly long-lived beings who have chosen to become family with these two remarkable humans. Michael thinks he might be able to wiggle in between Jack and these new bonds, but Jack isn't likely to be swayed by his evil alternate-universe uncle, not after what he experienced with Lucifer. Oh, also, I adore that we got a Michael-in-the-cage shout-out. Does that mean our OG Michael might be making a re-appearance? Now that would be fascinating.

Cas and Jack have a nice little father-son bonding moment over sugary cereal, which I thought was adorable. There's been a great deal of Jack and Dean relationship focus this season, which I love, but it's important to go back to Jack's initial bonds, too, and that means more focus on Cas and Sam. I love that Sam and Jack got to go on a little adventure just the two of them. Sam was so proud of Jack for picking a lock, and then so frantic with worry when Jack was taken.

Of course, Sam and Jack being paired off means we got time with just Dean and Cas which is a dream come true. We have the very depressing moment when Dean, fired up about the chance to kill Michael, says that they got a big win with no strings attached when they got Jack back. Cas obviously doesn't tell Dean the truth, but it's just so heartbreaking to watch Cas' face in that moment. Later, Dean says he won't truly be happy until he's killed Michael, and he says that his experience with Michael gave him new perspective on the horrors that Sam and Cas both went through when possessed by Lucifer. This "truly happy" line obviously echos the Empty's promise to Cas, and I'm getting really nervous about how they're going to break our hearts with this later on. I feel like Cas and Dean made a really good team in this episode. We saw how seamlessly they can work together, and how comfortable they are in each other's company.

There are lots of delightful little moments where we see how much these people care for each other. My favorite is when Dean and Cas are having trouble getting a hold of Sam, and they're both really worried about him. Sam finally calls, delivering the bad news that Michael has Jack. They race to go meet Sam, but Cas' final words are warning him not to go in there alone. Sam seems to agree, but of course he barges in anyway, desperate to get Jack out of there. Dean is obviously pissed off about this, but Sam said he had no choice, where Jack was concerned. There was a good economy of language in these moments, showing exactly how scared Cas and Dean were about Sam and Jack, without making a big point out of it.

And that ending. Like I said, this is surprising to absolutely nobody. Of course Michael has a way to get back in and control Dean once more. I loved his explanation - Dean was too squirmy when Michael was possessing him before. Dean couldn't gain control, but he was so desperate to get back to his family that he was annoying the archangel. So... Michael left. He wanted to get to a situation where Dean would realize that he was truly trapped, that there was no real escape for him. Now, instead of fighting every step of the way, Michael says that Dean is truly gone.

This is exactly what I predicted would happen, and I'm still super pleased with the result. I've been looking forward to seeing Michael!Dean more ever since we got those first few glimpses of him. There was so much we didn't get to experience before, namely, Cas and Sam playing off of possessed Dean, trying to get through to him. Now we get to see that, and we get to see Jensen play around with this evil character some more. I also like the way the moment was shot, where Dean is hesitating, confused, and then we just see his back as Sam, Cas, and Jack watch him break Kaia's spear. He turns around, and the struggle is already over - Dean is gone, and nobody had a chance to even try to intervene. That's pretty chilling!

I know that Jeffrey Dean Morgan will be returning for the 300th... I'm keeping my mouth shut on that one until I see how it plays out, though. Could be awesome, could be irritating. I can't wait to find out!

9/10